Mexican GP, 1987

The field was much as it had been all season, the only changes being that Osella had gone back to one car and Larrousse has expanded to two with Yannick Dalmas joining Philippe Alliot. Nelson Piquet was 18 point ahead with three races to go and so Nigel Mansell needed a good result without Piquet scoring too well. The atmosphere in the Williams had deteriorated badly between the two drivers but as Ayrton Senna was out of the running for the World Championship there was no chance that the two could take points from one another as they had in 1986 and let a third driver win the title.

At the start Mansell made a bad start and was overtaken by Berger, Boutsen, Piquet and Prost. At the first corner Piquet and Prost tangled and both cars spun. Prost was out but Piquet got going again. So Mansell was third. There were further incidents down through the field with Stefan Johansson being spinning and being eliminated when he was hit by Christian Danner.

At the front Boutsen took the lead from Berger on the second lap with Mansell a distant third but then the Benetton began to misfire and Berger went back into the lead and Boutsen went out with electronic trouble. Berger retired six laps later with an engine failure and with Alboreto also having disappeared Ferrari's race was over.

Mansell was thus left in the lead with Senna second and Patrese third and Piquet fourth. Then there were red flags after Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron) had a huge accident at the final corner when something broke at the back of his car.

A new grid was formed up based on the order of the cars before the crash with the race being decided on aggregate. Piquet took the lead at the restart but with Mansell sitting behind him there was no way he could win the race. In the closing laps Senna spun off and so Piquet ended up in second place having done enough to beat Patrese on aggregate. Eddie Cheever was fourth in his Arrows with Fabi fifth and Philippe Alliot sixth.